Mechro
by Kromatick
Summary: This is loosely based on the main storyline of Borderlands 2 except more focused on the character Gaige. It is mainly told from her point of view, but sometimes switches to another character's POV. *EDIT*: This story is now FINISHED so if you have read this, please go and read the sequel 'Hunted'.
1. Vault Hunters Wanted

It didn't take long after my arrival on Pandora for me to figure out that there were two kinds of people on this planet: Vault Hunters and bandits. Since the latter didn't appeal to me very much, I was more than excited to find a billboard saying "Vault Hunters wanted!" This was the opportunity I needed.

I sat in the shadows of a dusty train car, feeling every jolt as the train sped along the rails. I sat with my back against the wall, with my right knee up and my right arm resting on top of it. I'd been sitting there for hours, maybe, without any kind of interaction whatsoever. I'd hoped, coming on to this train, that I would get to meet other Vault Hunters, but the train was empty when I got on. I was beginning to think maybe this wasn't such a good idea, I mean, a teenage girl like myself hunting a Vault? The idea seemed ridiculous, and I thought about how I ended up in this situation.

I was deep in thought when the door to the train car opened. The train hadn't stopped, so we hadn't arrived yet. I looked up. 4 people entered the train car, they were all talking, but stopped when they saw me sitting on the ground. There were 3 men and one woman. The woman looked to be a little bit taller than me, with blue hair and had tattoos running down her left side. One of the men looked like he was in the military, except his uniform was worn and he looked beaten. He was built and had short, light brown hair. Another man was short, but incredibly muscular, he had spiky black hair and a long beard. The last person, who, I can only assume is a man, was a complete mystery, he wore a black, full body suit and a helmet and carried a long, blue katana on his back.

The short man whispered something to the soldier-looking man, but it was the woman who spoke to me first. "What's your name?" she said.

"Gaige" I replied.

"You a Vault Hunter?" she asked me.

I looked down towards the floor. "I guess" I sighed.

The short man started laughing, but the woman shot him a cold stare that made him shut up. She turned back towards me.

"Name's Maya" she said.

She introduced me to the other Vault Hunters. The short man was named Salvador, the soldier was named Axton, and they called the mysterious man Zero. She held a hand out to help me up, but when I reached for it with my mechanical left arm, she froze. The others noticed it too and they all looked equally surprised.

I laughed and held up my metal arm, "What?" I smiled.

"What happened to your arm?" Axton asked.

"Sliced off my original arm and built myself this mechanical arm instead, wasn't hard, although I like to think I'm a pretty good mechanic." I explained.

Jaws dropped as everyone stared at me. I couldn't help but smile. There was a long silence.

"This girl is very strong / she will make a great Vault Hunter / she should stay with us." Said Zero in a robotic, monotone voice.

I grinned and looked at him.

"Haiku?" I asked.

He nodded his head gently.

"You want to explain to us why you cut off your arm, amigo?" boomed Salvador, he spoke with a Spanish-sounding accent "Not even I'd be that crazy!"

"You'll see why eventually" I said to him.

The rest of the group exchanged glances, you could see that they thought I wasn't exactly... normal.

(Axton's POV)

I had been on the train for hours, the ride was relentless, never-ending. I had met up with 3 other Vault Hunters on the train: Zero, Salvador and Maya. We had been talking most of the time and I reckoned I knew them quite well. They had all come to Pandora for different reasons.

We got sick of waiting in the same train carriage for hours, so we decided to check out what we could of the rest of the train. We walked through a few different carriages without seeing another person. The same question was on everybody's minds: "Where are the other Vault Hunters?"

It was in the fifth carriage we checked, however, that we found another Vault Hunter. We all noticed the teenage girl at the same time. She was sitting on the floor and looked up at us when we came in. She wore a sleeveless denim jacket with a hood and an orange t-shirt with a skull on it underneath. She also wore a dark orange skirt with ripped, black and white striped leggings. Her hair was bright red and was done in two pigtails sticking out on both sides. She also wore a pair of yellow goggles on her head.

"There's no chance she's a Vault Hunter!" Salvador whispered to me. I ignored him.

There was a short pause and then Maya spoke. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Gaige" the young girl replied quietly.

Maya paused before asking the next question.

"You a Vault Hunter?" she said

Gaige looked down towards the floor, obviously considering her answer.

"I guess" she muttered and let out a sigh.

I felt sorry for the girl, she looked like she couldn't have been older than 16. She was completely out of place on this planet of savages and psychos and she knew it. We would have to ask her later why she came here. I heard Salvador begin to laugh beside me, but stopped when Maya gave him a stare that meant "Shut up." Maya evidently felt the same feeling of sympathy towards Gaige as I did.

"Name's Maya" she said to Gaige

After Maya had finished introducing us all, she held out her hand to help Gaige up. It was then that I noticed it, I should have seen it before: Gaige's left arm was mechanical. We all stopped, eyes wide and mouths hanging open. After a long pause, she held up her metal arm and let out a huge smile.

"What?" she laughed, obviously finding amusement in everyone else's disbelief.

I was the first to speak.

"What happened to your arm?" I asked

"Sliced off my original arm and built myself this mechanical arm instead, wasn't hard, although I like to think I'm a pretty good mechanic." She explained casually, as if it was nothing.

There was a long silence, I could tell everyone was trying to take in all of what Gaige had just told us. We were all beginning to think the same thing, but it was Zero who put it into words.

"This girl is very strong / she will make a great Vault Hunter / she should stay with us." He said, never leaving his Haiku speak.

Gaige looked at Zero and smiled again, I knew what she was going to say before she said it.

"Haiku?" she asked him.

It was impressive that she noticed it so quickly, I only noticed it when Maya pointed it out to me.

It was Salvador's turn to speak next.

"You want to explain to us why you cut off your arm, amigo?" he said loudly "Not even I'd be that crazy!"

I'd hoped the first sentence Salvador said to her would be something a bit more... subtle, but I guess that's just the kind of person he is.

"You'll see why eventually" she said to him.

We all looked at each other. I liked this girl, she brought a sort of happiness to the group. It looked like she was going to be staying with us for a while.


	2. Welcome to Pandora, kiddos

(Gaige's POV)

I stood up myself and saw that the others were way taller than me. All of them, even Maya, had to look down slightly at me.

"So, uh, are we like, the only Vault Hunters on this train?" I asked

"Seems like it" said Maya

Suddenly, two armed robots appeared at the end of the train cart. The Vault Hunters looked at each other before all going different ways. Zero performed an impressive jump through an open hatch on the roof of the train, Salvador jumped out a side door and Maya ran straight towards the robots. "Gaige, get down!" Axton commanded. I took cover behind a metal cargo box. He threw down a small, square box that constructed itself into a turret which rained bullets on the robots. He pulled out a rocket launcher and fired it at the robots, skimming Maya but destroying one completely.

A huge purple ball of energy enveloped the next robot and I realized that Maya was controlling it. She picked the robot up off the ground and threw it through a wall and off the train.

Salvador swung in from the hole Maya had made in the wall, holding a machine gun in each hand. He ripped the robots to shreds in a hail of constant gunfire. Zero was nowhere to be seen.

Silence fell when the last robot was destroyed. Zero dropped back in from the same hatch he had jumped out. The Vault Hunters gathered in the middle of the carriage.

"Gaige?" Salvador called.

I stepped out from behind the metal box. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. They were the most kick-ass group of Vault Hunters I had ever met! Though, then again, they were the only Vault Hunters I had ever met. I wondered if they were all this badass.

"That… was… awesome!" I laughed.

The others looked at me and smiled, except for Zero, of course. Who's face was obscured by the black visor

"Wherever this train's going, I hope it gets-" I stopped. That's when I heard the ticking, I knew exactly what it was but I couldn't believe it. It was a fast, constant ticking, the kind that can only be made from one thing: explosives. My heart skipped a beat, my breathing became rapid. I tried to pinpoint the source of the ticking. The other Vault Hunters looked confused. I realised the ticking was coming from the next carriage down.

"What's wrong Gaige?" Maya asked me.

"No... please no" I whispered to myself before sprinting towards the door at the opposite end of the carriage.

"Gaige!" Axton shouted after me, but I ignored him. I reached the door to the next carriage and flung it open.

What I saw less than 3 metres away shocked me. I froze completely. There was a dummy of Handsome Jack, head of the Hyperion corporation, covered in blood and sitting in a chair next to a huge pile of dynamite. The Vault Hunters caught up to me.

"Shit" said Axton when he saw what was in the next carriage.

A pre-recorded message began to play in Handsome Jack's voice, "Y'know it's cute that you all think you're the heroes of this little adventure, but you're not."

"Run!" shouted Maya, the Vault Hunters sprinted away from the door, but still I stood there, unable to move. I couldn't take my eyes off the Handsome Jack dummy.

"Welcome to Pandora, kiddos." Continued the recording.

Then the explosives detonated.

I was instantly knocked back from the force of the explosion. The sound of it was louder than anything I had ever heard before. There was a loud ringing in my ears. My whole world went white. I felt myself being thrown around for a few seconds until I blacked out.

(Maya's POV)

Salvador finished destroying the last robot, then there was silence. Me, Salvador, Axton and Zero regrouped in the middle of the carriage.

"Gaige?" Salvador called.

The girl stepped out from behind a metal box, a smile on her face as always. I was relieved to see she was still alive.

"That… was… awesome!" she exclaimed and began laughing.

We looked at her and smiled. I really liked this girl, she was like the little sister I never had.

"Wherever this train's going, I hope it gets-" she halted, mid-sentence. She zoned out for a few seconds before snapping her head around a few times, as if looking for something. She began to panic, her breath coming fast. I looked over at Axton and Salvador, they appeared to be just as confused as I was.

"What's wrong Gaige?" I asked her. Her growing fear was contagious and I soon found myself worrying for her.

"No... please no" I heard her whisper quietly.

She dashed to the other end of the carriage and threw the door open. We ran after her. She was standing in the open doorway. I looked through the door. She had found what she was looking for.

A plastic Handsome Jack, soaked in blood, sat in a chair beside a mound of dynamite.

The whole thing was a trap, and we walked straight into it. Handsome Jack was trying to kill off all of the remaining Vault Hunters. But why? Was it because he wanted the contents of the Vault to himself? Were we getting in the way of his plans somehow?

"Shit" said Axton angrily.

Handsome Jack's voice came from somewhere in the room. "Y'know it's cute that you all think you're the heroes of this little adventure, but you're not." It said.

I wasn't going to wait around, those explosives could go off any second.

"Run!"I shouted, and we all ran for the opposite end of the carriage. I looked back and my heart sank. Gaige was still standing in the doorway, seemingly locked in place.

Then the explosives went off.


	3. Deathtrap

**A/N: Just writing this quick note to say a few things.**

**Firstly, thank you everyone so much for the reviews, they inspire me to keep writing :)**

**Secondly, I have thought long and hard about some changes to the story, and also where I will go with it in the future. Here is what I've concluded.**

**1. Since this story is loosely based on the Borderlands 2 story, I will not be doing every single scene in the game. I really want to get this story moving, so I have cut out a few unnecessary bits, as you will see in this chapter.**

**2. I have also thought about the ending for this, and have come up with something powerful and emotional, but you guys may not like it. I'm not saying anything yet, but be prepared for a twist.**

**Anyway, I present to you: Chapter 3! :)**

**Enjoy.**

(Gaige's POV)

My mind was drifting in and out of consciousness. I felt an icy wind blow over me as I slowly opened my eyes. I saw nothing but snow. I couldn't help but close my eyes.

When I opened them next, I was still lying in the snow. I could see the other four Vault Hunters talking to a Claptrap unit. I could hear voices, but they were distant and echoed. "Gaige!" I heard a voice shout.

My eyes closed again and I felt myself being dragged through the snow. It wasn't long before I passed out.

I woke up lying on something soft, a bed, probably. My eyes shot open and I sat up quickly. A searing pain shot through my chest. I struggled to keep in a scream. I seemed to be in an igloo of sorts. The walls were made of blocks of ice. There was a small wood fire burning in the corner. I slowly, step by step, stood up from the bed. I stumbled my way to a wooden door on the other side of the room, holding on to whatever I could on the way. I pulled the door open gently and walked through. It opened up to a bigger room, similar to the one I woke up in. Relief washed over me as I saw the other Vault Hunters standing in the middle of the room with their backs to me, talking to the same Claptrap unit.

"Hey" I croaked. The Vault Hunters spun around and saw me standing in the doorway. I tried to walk over to them, but my legs failed me. I collapsed to the cold, hard ground. Axton rushed over to me and helped me to my feet. He pulled a needle containing a red liquid out of his backpack.

"Hold still" he said to me. I did as I was told.

He jabbed the needle into my shoulder. The pain in my chest instantly began to decrease.

"What happened" I asked.

"Well," Maya explained "You kind of... froze, you got caught a bit too close to the blast. The train was derailed and we all got tossed out into the snow. The rest of us regrouped, met up with this Claptrap uni-

"Hey there!" the Claptrap said exuberantly.

I looked at the little robot, then back to Maya.

"Anyway," she continued "You're lucky we found you when we did, you were in a pretty bad shape when we saw you first. Salvador kept saying you weren't going to make it, but we didn't give up on you." she smiled.

I felt a lump in my throat. Why was this group of badass Vault Hunters purposely going out of their way to help a random girl like me?

"I... I'm sorry..." I said quietly.

"What are you apologizing for?" asked Axton.

"I probably seem useless compared to you guys, I mean, I can hardly fend for myself. Well, let me show you just why I have this robotic arm."

I figured this was a good a time as any. I raised my metal arm and made a fist. There was a bright, white light as my companion Deathtrap was slowly digi-structed into existence. Deathtrap was bigger than me, he had two huge arms with claws on the end of each hand. He had no legs, but instead hovered along thanks to my engineering skills. His head was a box containing a small, glowing circle.

"Vault Hunters, meet Deathtrap" I smiled.

The Vault Hunters stared wide-eyed at Deathtrap.

"He'll destroy any bandit, creature or robot you throw at him, although he's not finished yet. To be honest, I'm surprised the digistruct worked, It wasn't working on the train for some reason. I have a lot of ideas for different ways I can upgrade him."

The Vault Hunters continued to stare.

"Right, that's enough" I said, and raised my metal arm again. There was another bright light and then Deathtrap was gone. The Vault Hunters turned and looked at me.

"Well, that kicks the crap out of my turret." muttered Axton.

"Not really," I said "I'm sure you can find ways to upgrade your turret aswell. Anyway, what do we do now?"

"Actually, you've been out longer than you think, a whole day infact, and a lot has happened. We've found a way off this damn glacier." he said.

"A day?!" I gasped, "Woah."

"Yeah." Said Axton "Anyway, we found these for you on our travels. He tossed me a shiny sub-machine gun and a shield. I had seen shields like this used before but I never needed one for myself. I hooked the shield onto my waist and inspected the sub-machine gun. It said 'Maliwan' on the side.

"Yeah, this is cool and all but, how does it work" I said

"You point it at whatever is trying to kill you, you pull the trigger, the enemy bursts into flames, it's that simple" Axton explained.

"Awesome" I laughed. "Anyway, how are we getting off this glacier?"

"As it turns out, Claptrap here has a boat, which we can sail all the way to Sanctuary" he answered.

"Sounds like a plan" I shrugged. "When are we heading off?"

"Right now, I guess," Said Axton "Seeing as your back on your feet. I don't want to spend a second more on this glacier than I have to."

Maya clapped her hands together, purple electrical sparks appeared as she did so. "Let's get going then."

We left Claptrap's house, bringing him with us. His boat was docked behind a bandit hideout, which the others had already cleared while I was out. We trudged through the snow towards the hideout. It was a long walk and I was beginning to fall behind. The Vault Hunters continued on without noticing. They got further and further away from me. As long as I could see them, I figured, it would be okay.

"I SEEE YOOUUUU!" shouted a grizzly, deranged voice from behind me.

I spun around to see a man standing less than 15 metres away from me, with a tomahawk in his hand, twirling it around his fingers. He wore a white face mask and ripped, brown trousers but he wore no shirt.

"Shit." I muttered.

"Watcha gonna do, girly, shoot me?" he said and burst out laughing.

He began to walk towards me. I raised my SMG and aimed at his head. I tried to pull the trigger, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't live knowing that I killed someone, even if he was a psychopath. The others made it look so easy, killing things.

He was only around 10 metres from me now, still laughing maniacally. It was me or him, only one of us was going to leave this encounter alive. I shut my eyes tight and pulled the trigger. The gun spewed out several bullets, jolting with each shot fired. I heard a thud and I opened my eyes. The bandit lay, burning, on the ground with a few bullet holes in him.

It was at that moment that I truly realised what it took to survive on Pandora.

I heard footsteps running up behind me. I turned around and held up my gun, ready to fire.

"Woah woah woah!" said Axton as he threw his hands up.

I lowered my gun. The Vault Hunters gathered around me, asking what had happened. I pointed to the dead bandit, pushed my way through Maya and Salvador, and continued walking ahead of everyone.


	4. Sanctuary

**A/N: I was planning to start making the chapters much longer, but immense writer's block and severe lack of motivation prevented me from doing so. Also, I have had about zero free time recently, but now I'm off for a week so I'll see what I can get done.**

The boat ride to Sanctuary was an agonizing 10 hour journey. I spent most of the time thinking up ways that I could upgrade Deathtrap and I had a lot of ideas in mind. We were sailing through the night so I ending up nodding off after a few hours.

"Wakey wakey!" I woke up to Salvador shouting in my face. I pushed him aside and sat up.

"We're here" said Salvador happily.

I stood up and looked around. I noticed that the boat had somehow ended up around 5 metres from the sea, stuck on dry land. I saw Maya, Axton and Zero on a road next to the boat. Me and Salvador walked over to the side of the boat, vaulted the railing and strolled over to the others.

"Decided to join us, did you?" Maya said to me.

"Funny, I said flatly, "So, where are we heading now?"

"The main gate to Sanctuary is just up the road there." Axton explained.

"Kay, let's get going then."

We began to walk along the road. After a few steps, I heard a female voice.

"Hello, Gaige, it's about time I talked to you." she said

I stopped walking and spun around, trying to find where the voice was coming from. I realised the voice was coming from inside my head. A woman's face appeared in front of me, and no matter where I looked, she was still there.

"Uhh, hi." I said.

"Hello." She repeated. "I know all about you, Gaige, I have been researching you for a while. I know what happened that night at the Eden-5 Youth Science Fair."

I winced at the memories.

"Anyway, stay with the Vault Hunters, you'll be safe with them. Jack knows there's another Vault Hunter, no doubt he'll be putting a hefty bounty on your head." She warned, and then she disappeared.

"It looks like you just met Angel." Axton said to me.

"Yeah, who is she?"

"She's an A.I, apparently she has access to everything on Pandora."

"Woah, like a real A.I?" I exclaimed. "That is so cool!"

"Yes yes, it's amazing, now, can we just get to Sanctuary please?" Salvador said bluntly.

Suddenly, Handsome Jack's voice came over our ECHO communicators. "Well, well, looks like there's actually FIVE of you pesky Vault Hunters. I'll see what I can find out about the fifth one."

There was a long pause, during which I looked edgily at the others.

Jack came back laughing. "Hahahahaha! The fifth Vault Hunter's only a little girl, aww that's funny. Anyway, let's take a look at your file. Let's see, oh, so your name's Gaige, hello there Gaige. Hmmm... blah blah Eden-5 blah blah blah mechanics blah blah. Wait a minute, charged with murder? Hahahaha! Of who, I wonder?"

There was a short silence.

"WHAT?!" Jack screamed. "You're the girl who killed Mr. Holloway's daughter?! You little BI-"

With that, I switched off my ECHO communicator.

"That's enough of that jerkbag." I said

The others turned their ECHO devices off.

"And, now you've met Jack aswell." Axton said to me.

* * *

After raiding a nearby Bloodshot camp for a power core to put into Sanctuary's shield generator, we were finally allowed into Sanctuary. I had no problem killing bandits anymore, they were out to kill me, and I figured if I had already killed one, I might aswell kill a thousand of the bastards. When we entered Sanctuary, we were told that the leader of the Crimson Raiders, Roland, had gone missing and to head to the Crimson Raiders HQ in Sanctuary. We were greeted at the door of the HQ by one of the Raiders.

"Quick, get inside," he said to us, "Roland left a message for you."

We unlocked the door and walked inside. The room contained little more than a few dirty bunk beds, a few lockers, boxes, desks and some washing machines. We saw an ECHO recorder sitting on a desk and assumed that was the message the soldier was talking about. Axton picked up the ECHO device and hit the play button. A pre-recorded message began to play in Roland's voice.

"Hey soldier." He began, "If you're hearing this, I'm in trouble. Right now, you're the only thing standing between this city – hell, the whole planet – and Handsome Jack's army. I left info on my whereabouts in my safe. You can use it to store anything you need – this is your home now. Good luck."

Axton threw the ECHO device back onto the table and we headed upstairs to Roland's safe. His safe looked like a bank vault, with a metal, circular door with a big wheel jutting out. Salvador spun the wheel a few times and yanked the door open. Maya reached inside and pulled out another ECHO device, identical to the one we saw downstairs. She hit play.

"This is the Firehawk. Come to Frostburn Canyon or people will die." Said a heavily distorted voice.

"Well, crap." Sighed Maya "Looks like we're going to Frostburn Canyon then. We'll head out in an hour, everyone get all the guns and ammunition you need."

After buying some ammo from a vending machine, I decided to get to know the townspeople. On our way in, we had passed what looked like a garage named Scooter's, that looked like the kind of place where I was going to get parts for Deathtrap, so I started there.

I walked through the wide opening at the front of the building. The place was a mess, the concrete floor was drenched in oil and unfinished vehicles were strewn about the place.

Suddenly, a man came charging at me, swinging a wrench around wildly.

"Die, you Hyperion bitch!" he screamed at me.

I raised my SMG and aimed at him. He stopped running.

"Woah, man, don't shoot me!" he begged. He had a thick, hillbilly accent.

"I'm not here to kill you." I said with a smile. "My name's Gaige, I'm a Vault Hunter."

"Woah, like a real Vault Hunter? Why didn't you just say so? Name's Scooter, I run all of them Catch-A-Ride stations y'all have been usin'."

"That's cool." I said. It was good to finally have another mechanic to talk to.

I noticed he had been staring at my metal arm. I sighed and raised it to show him.

"Looking at this?" I asked, "Chopped of my original arm and build this mechanical one myself."

"That is badASS!" he laughed.

I smiled back at him. I liked this guy, I'd have to have a proper conversation with him once I got a chance.

"Thanks, anyway, I best get going, me and the other Vault Hunters are going to rescue Roland from this person by the name of the Firehawk. Should be fun." I said

"The Firehawk's got Roland? Oh, crap." He looked worried.

"What? Who exactly is the Firehawk?" I asked.

"The Firehawk's a mass murderin' psycho. If I were you guys, I'd get your asses to Frostburn Canyon and save Roland right away!"

"Kay, thanks for the tip. See ya around!" I said to him, before running off to warn the others what we were up against.


	5. Roland

After mowing down close to a hundred bandits, we finally arrived at the entrance to the Firehawk's lair, indicated by a charred bandit corpse pinned to a wooden pole. Scooter's description of the Firehawk kept repeating itself in my head. I was getting nervous, I had no idea what was waiting for us in there.

"Okay, everyone listen up," commanded Axton, "We're gonna take this slow, see if we can catch this guy by surprise."

We entered the lair and found ourselves on a large, circular, metal platform inside a huge ice cave. Two bruisers were standing there waiting for us.

"I got these guys." Said Axton. But, as he took aim, a giant fireball came out from nowhere and crashed into the middle of the platform, killing the two bruisers instantly in a bloody explosion. A woman with orange angel wings appeared from where the fireball landed. She was glowing orange and had the same tattoos on her arm as Maya.

"Sup." She said. "Name's Lilith, you probably know me as the Firehawk."

We all instantly raised our guns and Zero unsheathed his sword.

"Woah, okay, let me explain, I use the title 'The Firehawk' to cover up my real identity because, well, Hyperion thinks I'm dead and I want to keep it like that. As for Roland, a group of Bloodshots captured him on his way here. As far as I know, they're keeping him at their stronghold in Three Horns Valley."

We lowered our weapons. "Okay, so, let's go to this Bloodshot stronghold then." Said Axton.

"It's not as simple as that." Lilith said. "Those idiots have that place guarded well. The only thing that gets in and out of there are those bandit technicals that you can see driving around the place."

Axton looked at the rest of us and smiled. I knew what he was thinking.

"Axton, where are we gonna get our hands on a bandit technical?" I asked.

As if on cue, Scooter's voice came over our ECHO devices. "Hey guys, Scooter here, I hear y'all are lookin' for one of them bandit cars. Well, I got a sister named Ellie out in The Dust, go to her garage and see if she's got one."

All this time, Maya and Lilith were staring at eachother and smiling. "Finally another siren." I heard Maya say.

Axton clapped his hands together. "You heard the man. Let's head on out to The Dust and find this Ellie."

"Actually, I'll see if I can't teleport you there. I wanna try out some of my new siren abilities. See you back in Sanctuary." Lilith raised her arm and I was blinded by a bright purple light.

* * *

I raised my arms to try and block out some of the light, but it faded away pretty quickly. When it had disappeared completely, I lowered my arms and looked around. We were in what looked like a desert.

"Everyone okay?" Maya asked.

"Yeah." We all replied in unison.

"Hey, I see a building over there, I think that's the garage. Let's go." Said Axton and we began to walk in the direction he pointed out.

As we head towards the building, Handsome Jack's voice came over my ECHO device, I hadn't heard from him since he talked to me outside Sanctuary. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey Gaige, it's Jack again, long time no see, just here to tell you that I just had a nice long chat with Mr. Holloway, and we agreed on a bounty for you." He said chirpily. "820 billion bucks for the person who brings him your head. Good luck."

"Perfect." I grumbled.

We reached Ellie's garage and were greeted by an overweight woman in mechanic's overalls. "Howdy." She said in the same accent as Scooter. "I was just talkin' to Scooter, he said somethin' about y'all needin' a bandit technical?"

"Uh, yeah." Said Maya.

"It's over there, just needs a few more things to make it look all bandit-y. Go and blow up some of them technicals over there and take their parts." Ellie pointed over to a cluster of bandit vehicles doing donuts in the distance.

"I'm on it!" Salvador grinned and he sprinted off into the distance, holding a rocket launcher and laughing like a maniac.

* * *

After scanning the finished bandit technical into the Catch-A-Ride sytem, we digi-structed two and we all hopped in. I was in one with Salvador and Axton, and Maya and Zero were in the other.

"Now, y'all just drive up to their stronghold, honk your horns, and they'll let y'all in without question." Ellie smiled.

"Axton fired up the engine and we tore off. "Thanks Ellie!" I called as we sped away.

We stopped at the front gate of the stronghold. Axton looked back at me. "Ready?" he asked. "Go for it." I replied and he honked on the horn.

"Yeah, yeah I'm lowerin' the gate!" called a bandit from inside as the gate began to go down. Once it was lowered fully we drove through and began our attack.

"Surprise, bitches!" shouted Axton as he hopped out the driver's seat, threw down his turret and began unloading bullets at on any bandit he could find. Salvador stayed in the turret of our car and rained even more bullets down. I summoned Deathtrap, jumped off the back of the car and onto his shoulder, and got to work. Maya and Zero had ditched their car and began killing every bandit in sight. Within seconds, there were bullets flying everywhere. Deathtrap set the bandits on fire with his laser, and I finished them off with my gun. It was going great, there weren't many bandits remaining. Suddenly, I saw a goliath jumping towards me, fist at the ready, I tried to fire but it was too late, his huge fist smacked into me. The shield I had equipped absorbed most of the damage, but the force was enough to knock me from Deathtrap's shoulder and onto the ground. The goliath was already standing over me and preparing for the finishing blow before Deathtrap could even register what happened. But, as the goliath raised his fist, I saw a blue light cut through him, and he collapsed in two pieces, revealing Zero, who was standing behind where the goliath was, holding his blood-soaked katana.

"Thanks, Zero." I panted as he pulled me to my feet.

The five of us assembled in the middle of the battlefield, bandit corpses littered the ground. There was a drawbridge that led into the inner part of the stronghold, which was built into the mountain.

"Salvador, go spin that valve over there, I think it lowers the drawbridge." Axton told him.

Salvador did as he was told and the drawbridge lowered to form a bridge across to the main entrance. As we were crossing the flimsy drawbridge, a nomad dropped from the sky to land a few metres in front of us. He looked just like every other nomad we had fought: a huge, thick suit and a helmet with only a small slit where the eyes were so he could see out. Like the others, he carried a big, metal shield, but unlike the others, he had three midget psychos tied to the front.

"That's just sick." I frowned.

"He'll die all the same." Axton said to me. "Get a grenade behind him everyone!" he yelled.

A hail of various grenades flew the air to land behind him. The nomad was confused as to which side to protect. He spun around to protect himself from the grenades, and as soon as he did, we all fired simultaneously at his back. Axton was right, it didn't take much to kill him. He slumped to the ground before the grenades even exploded. The midgets were killed in the explosion.

"Well, that was easy." Laughed Maya.

* * *

"Hey, over there, I can see Roland!" Axton called.

We battled our way through the bandits towards the cell where they were keeping Roland. We killed all the bandits before approaching Roland.

"So you're the Vault Hunters that I've been hearing about? Thank God, look around, I think there's a switch to open this cell somewhere." He said.

As soon as he had finished his sentence, the wall behind him exploded and a Hyperion loader burst through the hole. I remembered how Marcie had stolen the design for Deathtrap and sold it to Hyperion, and this is what they had came up with, a cheap rip off of my robot.

"One second." Roland sighed. He threw himself at the loader, knocking it to the ground, he then ripped of the robot's gun and used it to shoot the loader. Another loader appeared through the hole, which Roland blasted with the robot's gun. He had killed to loaders with nothing but his bare hands, in the most badass way imaginable.

"Next time," I said, "Aim for the red light on their chests, that's the weak point." Everybody turned and looked at me.

"Are you sure?" Roland asked sceptically.

I nodded. "I should know, I designed the damn things."

The Vault Hunters looked at me, amazed. They had the same looks on their faces as they did when I explained my robot arm.

Suddenly, a blue beam shone through the whole, wrapped around Roland's ankle and yanked him through the hole the loader had made in his cell.

"Stand back amigos!" shouted Salvador as he took out a rocket launcher, took a few steps back and aimed at the metal bars of the prison cell. We stood clear as he blew open the cage.

"Quick, everybody, after Roland!" Axton called and we all sprinted through the hole in the cell. I saw a constructor floating along in the distance, with Roland levitating in a cage above it, surrounded by the same blue beam that had pulled him out.

* * *

The constructor stopped in the middle of a small, open area. We caught up to it and began to pump bullets into it. It began to digi-struct other loaders to fight for it.

"Gaige, Zero, focus on taking out the loaders, Salvador, Maya and I will get the constructor!" Axton instructed. I noticed he was quickly becoming the leader of the group, I didn't question it though, he was a good leader.

With me and Zero picking off the loaders, and the others concentrating their fire on the constructor, it was soon destroyed and Roland jumped down from on top of the constructor.

"I guess I owe you guys one, huh?" he said, relieved to be safe.

"Anytime," Axton smiled, "I'm Axton by the way, let me introduce you to everyone."

He pointed at Salvador. "That's Salvador."

"Hola!" said Salvador with a grin.

"That's Maya," Axton said, "She's a siren."

"Hey." She said.

"That guy in the suit and helmet over there is Zero, he doesn't talk much."

Zero turned his head towards Roland, but said nothing.

Lastly, Axton pointed at me. "Finally," he smiled at me, "That little anarchist over there is Gaige, best engineer I know."

I grinned madly at the compliment. "Hi." Was all I could say.

Roland eyed me suspiciously. He clearly thought I didn't belong here, just like the others when they saw me first.

"I wouldn't be too worried about her." Axton said to Roland, "She can handle herself."

"Whatever you say." Roland shrugged. There was a short silence before Maya spoke.

"I saw a fast-travel station just over there, let's get back to Sanctuary, Lilith's waiting." She said.

Roland suddenly perked up. "Let's get going then." He said and we headed off.


	6. Wilhelm

**A/N: Sorry for the really long wait for a really short chapter, I really haven't had time recently, but I'll try to get chapters up a bit more frequently from now on.**

**Also, apologies in advance to all Tiny Tina fans out there, I felt her part could have been bigger, but I really didn't have any ideas and I can't do her character very well.**

**Hope you enjoy anyway :)**

* * *

We approached the location where Roland had said Tiny Tina would be, a cave inside a small mountain out in the Tundra Express.

"Tina can be a bit... odd," Roland's voice came over our ECHO devices, "but she's the most gifted demolitionist on Pandora. Just, don't make any sudden movements near her."

We shot confused glances at each other.

As we reached the opening of the cave, we heard a huge explosion from inside. We rushed inside and found a young girl standing there with a remote detonator in her hand and a smile on her face.

"Oops." She grinned.

I guessed this was Tina. She looked to be around 13 or so. She had blonde hair, a psycho's mask on the side of her head, huge eyes and a plaster on her nose. She wore random pieces of different types of clothes.

"Hey, you guyz the shooty people that Roland sent?" she said quickly.

"Uh, I gu-" Maya started to say.

"AWESOME, welcome to my humble abode!" she smiled and threw her arms out.

The other Vault Hunters exchanged a look of confusion. Meanwhile, I was quietly laughing to myself, I couldn't help it, the girl was hilarious. The others looked at me curiously and I shut up.

"My ladiez Mushy Snugglebites and Felicia Sexopants are nearly reaadyyyyyy. BUT, some bandits stole their badonkadonks, so... GO GET 'EM. She exclaimed, jumping up and down.

Axton facepalmed and slid his hand slowly down his face and that was it, I couldn't hold it anymore, I burst into a loud laugh. I laughed for a few seconds until I let out a huge snort, which I tried to cover up with a cough.

"Right then, let's go get these... what were they? Badonkadonks?" said Maya.

"Yep yep." Said Tina and we turned to leave. The others walked ahead and I followed behind. As I was making my way out, I heard Tina shout: "Hey, robot arm thingy girl!"

I turned and looked back at her. "Yeah?"

"Whaz yo name?" she asked me.

"Gaige."

"I likes you Gaige, you should totally come over for a tea party sometime, it will be the shizzle fo' rizzle!"

I began to grin uncontrollably again. "Sure, why not?" I smiled.

* * *

Wilhelm was one of the freakiest things I had ever seen, he was part human, part machine. He had the body of a giant loader, but a human head rested on top. He flipped over a train car and began to sprint at us.

"Shit, everybody spread out!" yelled Axton.

We instantly dispersed, each one of us warming up our abilities. Axton lobbed his turret on the ground, Salvador pulled out a second gun, Maya's tattoos were glowing purple, I saw Zero disappear out of the corner of my eye as I summoned Deathtrap. Suddenly, we heard Roland's voice shouting at us through our ECHO devices.

"It's a trap – the Vault Key's not on the train! Abort the mission, Raiders!" he commanded.

"To hell with that!" laughed Salvador as he opened fire on Wilhelm.

Wilhelm turned and aimed at Salvador, who didn't seem fazed at all. Wilhelm's gun charged up, but just as it was about to fire, there was a flash of blue and his arm dropped to the ground. I saw Zero run through Wilhelm's legs and then vanish again. Salvador pumped an endless stream of bullets into Wilhelm, who picked up a nearby boulder and lobbed it at Salvador, which he dodged with surprising speed. Wilhelm had his back turned to me, so I hopped on Deathtrap's shoulder and began to fire on him. To my surprise, Wilhelm spun around and threw a fist in my direction. The tip of his hand connected with me, knocking me from Deathtrap. I ended up on my back in the snow, but I continued firing. Wilhelm brought up his fist again to finish the job. I saw this coming at the last second and rolled out of the way, lobbing a grenade at him while I did so. The grenade got lodged between a piece of metal next to his head and exploded, damaging him but not killing him. Before he could recover, he was enveloped in Maya's phaselock and was suspended in the air. We all unloaded everything we had into him until Maya's phaselock ran out and he slumped to the ground, his robotic body crumbling to pieces.

We all converged on where Wilhelm had fallen. Roland spoke through our ECHO devices again.

"You killed Wilhelm, holy hell, Jack doesn't stand a chance." Roland said in disbelief.

"Your damn right he doesn't." Axton agreed.

Then, Angel spoke to us all.

"Wilhelm dropped a power core. Be sure to grab it, my sensors tell me it's one-of-a-kind. If you bring it to Roland, Sanctuary's shield may never have to be recharged again." She told us.

"I like the sound of that." I said to the others as I picked up the small power core from the snow and brushing the snow off of it.

"Definitely," Said Axton, "Now let's get it back to Sanctuary. I think there's a fast travel station just over there."

We walked in two groups, Maya, Salvador and Zero at the front and me and Axton trailing behind a bit.

He looked at me and said, "You know what Gaige? You've never actually told us why you're here. I mean, Zero's here because he wants a challenge. Maya's here because she wants to learn about some Siren stuff, Salvador's just kinda... here, and I'm here because I have nowhere else to go. What about you?"

I had a flashback of all the events leading up to my arrival on Pandora. "Yeah I guess, it's a pretty epic story, I'll tell you guys all about why I'm here when we're safely in Sanctuary." I replied.

"Well okay then." He smiled at me.


	7. Lost

**A/N: By some magic, I managed to get this chapter done aswell, it's still the same length as any other chapter, but this is about the length I like to keep it.**

**Anyway, enjoy and leave a review if you can! **

* * *

I pulled out the old, worn out power core from Sanctuary's shield generator. I picked the new power core we got from Wilhelm and shoved it in. Small arcs of electricity appeared as the power core began to spin around in the generator. I turned around and gave the others a smile, which they all returned, even Zero with a smiley face on his helmet. The protective bubble around Sanctuary pulsed purple every few seconds, which meant it was working. I turned and looked up at the Hyperion ship that was constantly orbiting Pandora.

"In your face Jack!" I shouted towards the ship. "Good luck destroying Sanctuary now motherfu-"

There was a huge electrical explosion as the shield around Sanctuary fell. The Hyperion ship began to fire relentlessly on Sanctuary.

"You were saying, Gaige?" Jack's voice said to me. "Anyways, as it turns out, Angel's working for me, so... Haha!"

"Sanctuary's shields lowered Jack..." I heard Angel say.

"Aww, fuck!" shouted Salvador. "Things are about to get really bad, amigos!"

* * *

We sprinted through the streets of Sanctuary, dodging fireballs and flying debris left and right. Citizens and soldiers were running for whatever cover they could find. We were heading towards the centre of town.

"Everyone! I have a really bad plan, Scooter, get Sanctuary in the air, and someone get me some Eridium quick!" Lilith shouted through the ECHO device.

"This city aint ready to fly yet!" Scooter yelled back.

"Do it Scooter!" commanded Roland.

There was a short pause before Scooter shouted again. "Imma need somebody's help real bad!"

"Gaige! Go help Scooter!" Axton ordered.

I dashed over to Scooter, he was crouching next to an ignition primer. He had opened up the front of it to reveal the circuitry, but was smacking the side of it with a wrench.

"Work goddammit!" he shouted in frustration.

He saw me running over to him. "Gaige, thank God you're here! This damn thing won't work!"

I knelt next to him and looked in at the circuits. All I saw was a jumbled mess of wires. There had to be a way to reset them.

"What are we gonna do Gaige?!" Scooter continued to panic. "That thing is-"

"There!" I exclaimed. "See that blue switch at the back? Pull that down and it should cycle the ignition primer!"

I reached in and pulled the switch down, the machine lit up and made a loud whirring noise.

"That's it! Now go and do the same to that one over there, I got the last one!" I yelled to Scooter. I stood up and ran to the next ignition primer. I yanked the small hatch on the front open, reached inside, flipped the blue switch and the machine began to light up and whir just like the first one.

I saw Axton exit the Crimson Raider's HQ with a handful of Eridium and sprinted over to Lilith. He handed it to her and she began to glow purple when she touched it. She put her two hands on the pillar in the middle of town, and focused her Siren powers. After a few seconds, there was a blinding purple explosion and, just like when the explosives went off on the train, I felt myself be thrown backwards for a quick second before passing out.

* * *

I woke up on cold, hard ground. I slowly opened my eyes and looked up at the sky, it was early morning. I sat up and looked around. _Where the hell was I? _I saw a hilly grass and dirt area with a few big rocks strewn around. I stood up and searched for the other Vault Hunters.

"Axton? Maya? Salvador? Zero?" I called out. No answer. I checked my equipment, I still had everything. I needed a higher vantage point. There was a small hill ahead of me, so I walked to the top and looked around. I saw more of the same, a grassy, hillish area with mountains surrounding it. In the distance, though, on top of a cliff, I saw what looked to be a house, or at least a building. Since that was the only building I could see, I decided to head towards it in the hope that it wasn't another bandit camp.

I began the long walk to the building. As I walked, I wondered how Sanctuary was doing. Had Scooter got the city in the air? Had they somehow restored Sanctuary's shields? So many questions, and here I was, cut off from everyone else. I thought how long I could have been out, it was late afternoon when we arrived back in Sanctuary, and it was early morning now, so about less than a day maybe. Or could it have been a day and a few hours? I had no way of telling.

My thoughts were interrupted by a soft growl from behind me. I turned around, my favourite revolver at the ready, but I saw nothing. I looked around again, before holstering the revolver and continuing on. After a few paces, I heard the growl again, louder this time, and more aggressive. I barely had time to pull out my revolver before it jumped on me and knocked it out of my hands. It was a weird looking animal, kind of like a dragon, but the size of a large dog. I fell to the ground, the animal still on top of me, trying to take a bite at my head. I grabbed the animal's head with both hands, trying to stop it from getting close. I glanced at my revolver on the ground, it was out of reach. I thought about my metal arm, and about how it was strong enough to smash concrete. So, with all my strength, I pulled my robotic arm away, still pushing the creature's head away with my free hand, and curled the metal fingers into a fist. I threw a punch towards the creature's head, and it connected with a satisfying crunch. The creature went limp and collapsed on top of me. I pushed it off and stood up. I checked my metal arm for any damage, and saw that my second and third fingers had fallen off. I looked down and found the two fingers lying on the ground. Cursing, I stooped down, picked them up and pocketed them. I then picked up my revolver off the ground and holstered it again.

* * *

I reached the top of the hill that led to what looked like the entrance of the settlement. I reached the gate, there was a sign hanging above it that read "Welcome to Overlook". I walked through the gate, the place looked like a ghost town.

"All this place needs is a tumbleweed." I whispered and laughed at my little joke.

I rounded a corner to one of the most relieving sights I had ever seen: the four Vault Hunters were standing there around a Fast-Travel station. I walked up behind them, they still hadn't noticed me.

"Y'know," I said, "You won't get rid of me that easily."

They turned around and each cracked a huge grin. Maya walked over to me and hugged me.

"Where the hell were you?" she asked.

"I'm actually not sure," I replied. "I woke up and I was waaayyy over there." I pointed roughly to where I had woken up. "I killed this weird dragon-dog thingy on the way, it was awesome."

"You mean a Stalker, those invisible bastards?" Axton said.

"Stalker,eh? Anyway, the thing came out of nowhere and knocked my gun away, but I still managed to kill it." I raised my metal hand and they saw that two fingers were missing.

"Woah, what did you do?" Maya frowned.

"Punched it, killed it stone dead in one hit." I smiled.

Salvador broke into a roaring laugh. "Punched a Stalker! Maybe I have to get me one of those metal hands."

"That can be arranged." I joked. "Now, let's just get back to Sanctuary."

"Sure thing." Axton said, selecting Sanctuary on the list of locations. "Wait until you see it now." He smiled.


	8. Background

**A/N**: **Here's another short one, mostly dialogue and a very overdue scene. Anyway, hope you enjoy anyway :)**

* * *

I sat in Tannis' swivel chair, with my feet up on her desk. We had all retired to the Crimson Raider's HQ for the night. The whole group was here: me, Maya, Salvador, Axton, Zero, Lilith, Roland and Mordecai. Everyone was doing something, Lilith and Maya were sitting down, talking, Salvador and Mordecai were getting drunk off rakk ale, Axton and Roland were comparing assault rifles, and I was trying to fix my broken fingers. I got hold of a toolbox from Scooter's and was nearly finished mending them. I had the wires reconnected and I could move them, I just needed to put them back into place. I leaned over to where Lilith and Maya were sitting.

"Hey, Maya, can you, uh, hold these fingers in place while I screw them in?" I asked her.

"Sure thing," She laughed. She held them in place and I began to screw them back in.

"What happened there?" Lilith asked.

"Sorta... punched a Stalker, apparently too hard," I told her.

"Nice," She smiled.

I finished tightening the last finger into place. "There we go! Thanks, Maya," I said and returned to my place at the desk, flexing my newly repaired fingers.

"So, your story then?" Axton said from behind me. I leaned my head over the back of the chair and looked upside-down at him.

"Yeah, sure," I smiled at him.

He picked up a chair, placed it next to me and sat down.

"Right, so," I began, "I'll start from the very start, I guess. I was living on Eden-5 with my parents. I was still in school, which I actually like. Anyway, Eden-5 was having it's annual Youth Science Fair and, obviously, I was going to enter it."

I paused and realised that everybody in the room had stopped talking and were listening to me.

"Uh, anyway, I came with the idea for a robot that would beat up bullies, who you now know as Deathtrap. Oh, also, there was this bitch named Marcia in my class, and her Dad was like, super high up in Hyperion. She got her Dad to order his workers to build her a miniature thermo-sonic energy reactor. Pffft, bitch please."

"So I eventually got the first prototype of Deathtrap up and floating, but I didn't know how to digi-struct him into existence. I built a big, spawning rod for it," I held up my arm, "This thing, but it was way too awkward to carry around everywhere. Later on though, while I was working, I sliced my arm on some sheet metal, not a big cut, barely went like, halfway to the bone."

Everyone in the room laughed at that little comment.

"And it occurs to me, I could just use a health hypo and get back to soldering a bicycle horn to the top of the tactical nuke launcher, but then I had an idea. Why not kill two birds with one stone? I could program all of DT's data into a robotic arm, and summon him whenever I want! So I chop my arm off with a particle saw, and there's like, blood everywhere, but I eventually built this awesome robot arm."

"Jesus," Lilith said, "I can't believe how laid back you are about that."

"Meh," I shrugged, "It wasn't much."

"Gaige, you cut off your arm," Maya frowned.

"Whatever," I continued, "After that, I find out that Marcie stole my DT design, built a cheap rip off of my robot, and sold it to Hyperion! They're now the loaders that Hyperion use. Sorry about that."

"So the day of the science fair finally arrives. Things were looking good at the start, I was showing off everything Deathtrap could do, while all Marcie's stupid robot managed to do was overheat every few seconds. I really thought I was gonna take 1st place, but no, Marcie's Dad bought off the judges panel and she won 1st, and I got... 3rd. Then, Marcie started bragging and laughing at me, then she pushed me. Deathtrap saw Marcie as a threat, and he gave her a slash with his claws, just like he's supposed to. Anyway, I sorta messed up the discord circuits when I was changing them the night before, because as soon as Deathtrap touched Marcie, she... uh, exploded."

The room was instantly filled with laughter, I had a feeling they would find that bit hilarious.

"Uh, I was going to be arrested for what happened, but my Dad told me I should leave Eden-5. I bought a ticket to Pandora, hopped on a trans-planetary shuttle, and here I am!" I finished with a grin.

I turned to Axton. "So, whatcha think?" I asked him.

"I think," he replied, "That bitch Marcie got what she deserved."

"That's exactly what my Dad said," I laughed.

Suddenly, Angel appeared over our ECHO devices, but Roland spoke before she did.

"Dammit! I thought I told you never to contac-"

"I know where the Vault Key is," she interrupted.

"Continue," sighed Roland.

"It's with me, in the control core on top of a mountain in Thousand Cuts. You'll need to pass through three impassible security hurdles to get to me, though. Firstly, you will need to find a way around a force field that will vaporise any non-Hyperion entity that passes through it. Then, you will need to get past a bunker that is fitted with the most high-tech weaponry Hyperion can buy. Finally, you will need to get through a door, equipped with a bio-scanner, that will only open for Handsome Jack himself. I must go now, good luck." She said before disappearing.

"Well, crap," Axton muttered. "Any ideas, anyone?"

I thought for a second. "Hey, Claptrap was made by Hyperion, right? Shouldn't he be able to get through? Of course, he'll need a cloaking device of some sort so he can sneak in and deactivate the barrier for us." I suggested.

"Yeah, yeah that could work," Roland said. "But where could you get a hold of an upgrade like that?"

I had no idea.

"I dunno," I shrugged.

"I think I might know," Mordecai chimed in. "Give me a day or so and I'll get you your Claptrap upgrade."

"If you say so, soldier," Roland said to Mordecai.

There was a long silence. It was getting late and I was really tired.

"Anyway," I yawned, "I'm off to bed, goodnight everyone."

* * *

**A/N: So, I'm going to skip ahead a good bit now, probably to around when they reach Control Core Angel. Should be up within the week (maybe). **

**Anyway thanks for reading, please review if you can!**


	9. Angel

**A/N: So here you go, Chapter 9. I'm coming close to the end now, so there will probably be 11 chapters. I've tried to get chapters out as fast as I can, but I usually end up doing one a week, if even.**

**Also, somebody requested that I post my Xbox Gamertag so that fans could add me. so, if you want to add me, my GT is HalpiN71041, if you do add me, send me a message saying what your username on the site is.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter :)**

* * *

"You really think I'd just have a bunch of robots guarding the Vault Key? You see, the bunker isn't a place." Handsome Jack said solemnly.

A huge, black, disk-shaped object hovered into the sky using jet thrusters. Metal flaps on both sides of it opened up and various arrays of weaponry came out.

"Meet the BNK-3R, the greatest defence bot ever built," Jack continued on as the ship flew over our heads.

"Shit! Everyone get ready!" Axton yelled.

"Oh, crap!" Brick shouted over our ECHO devices. "The bunker went airborne slabs! This is gonna get messy!"

In the distance, I saw the BNK-3R take a wide turn and head back in our direction. Different types of Hyperion loaders landed on the platform where we stood.

"That thing's coming back!" I warned. "Get to cover!"

I pulled out my corrosive SMG and melted a nearby loader, before sliding into cover amidst a pile of metal crates. Maya vaulted over one of the crates and crouched down next to me.

"I wouldn't say you're able to phaselock THAT?!" I asked, raising my voice over the sound of gunfire.

"I could try!" she shouted back at me.

I reloaded, then nodded at her and we broke our cover and ran back into the centre of the platform. I summoned Deathtrap and covered Maya as she readied her Siren powers to phaselock BNK-3R. BNK-3R was coming in fast, it would fly over us in a matter of seconds. I continued to destroy any loader that came near us. While I was shooting, I looked around for Zero, Salvador and Axton. I saw Salvador and Axton fending off a group of loaders. Axton's turret was set up in front of him, and Salvador held two huge machine guns, one in each hand. The bullets he was firing were bouncing off BNK-3R, doing seemingly no damage. Zero was nowhere to be seen. I turned my attention back to BNK-3R.

"Ready Maya?!" I shouted.

"As I'll ever be!" She replied, her tattoos glowing purple.

BNK-3R came within range, and Maya thrust her arm out to phaselock it. A purple circle flickered around BNK-3R for a few seconds, slowing it down but not stopping it. Maya couldn't hold on and she dropped her arm and stumbled backwards, as BNK-3R continued to fly overhead.

"Dammit!" She howled in frustration.

I looked around again and saw that Salvador and Axton had taken cover behind the same stack of crates that me and Maya had used a few moments ago. We rushed across the battlefield and took cover behind the crates, next to Axton and Salvador. Deathtrap followed behind me.

"Well, phaselock's out of the question," Maya told Axton.

"Crap," Axton said, as he popped out of cover to take out a loader. "We can't get any damage on it while it's flying around like that, we gotta wait for it to stop and come close before we can do anything. So, until it does that, keep fighting!" Axton commanded.

I sprinted back out into the centre of the platform. Lasers suddenly appeared and quickly began sliding their way at waist-level along the battlefield.

"Laser countermeasures! Watch out!" Brick shouted.

The lasers came in twos and in short intervals, so I jumped over the first laser and rolled under the second in one swift movement. As I stood up, I saw BNK-3R appear directly above me. I watched it as a giant cannon appeared from a hatch in the bottom of it. The cannon was aimed at me, it began to glow a dark red colour, charging up its shot. Just as it was about to fire, there was a flash of blue and I saw Zero fly past me. The cannon became detached from BNK-3R and fell to the ground. I looked up into the hatch where the gun had come out of, I saw what looked like the circuitry that kept this thing running and had an idea. I quickly brought Deathtrap underneath the hatch, clambered onto his shoulder and jumped up towards the hatch. I grabbed onto the edge and pulled myself up inside BNK-3R.

There was barely any space to move around in here, let alone stand up, wires constricted my movement everywhere I went. I crawled around inside, looking for something of importance to BNK-3R that I could destroy. After a minute or so of desperate searching I found what looked like a small generator, similar to Sanctuary's shield generator. Inside it, a small blue sphere was spinning around.

I grinned to myself, this was too easy.

I took out a grenade, pulled the pin and switched the power core with the grenade as fast as I could, then crawled back towards the hatch. I looked down, BNK-3R was still hovering above the main platform. That grenade would go off any second, so I threw myself through the hold and landed back on the platform, rolling to lessen the impact.

There was a huge explosion behind me and I looked up. A massive hole had been blown right through the middle of BNK-3R. Oil spilled out from every crack and its thrusters were flickering on and off. It was going to fall.

Right on top of me.

I stood up and ran, diving as soon as I was out of BNK-3R's shadow. There was a huge crash behind me, and then silence. I rolled over to see the metal wreckage mere centimetres from me. I lay back down and looked up at the sky, laughing. That was the most badass thing I had ever done in my entire life. Ever.

Axton stood over me, holding out a hand to help me up.

"Gaige, that. Was. Awesome!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah," I panted, "But I don't think I could do it again."

* * *

"I love you," Axton said, in Jack's voice, into the bio-scanner.

"Access granted," said an automated voice, "Hello, sexy."

"Why, thank you," He grinned as the door slid open.

We walked through to find an elevator. We all stood on it and I pushed the button to go down. As we descended, Angel spoke to us.

"Eridium alone could never charge the Vault Key, it needed a catalyst, it needed a Siren."

We all looked at each other.

"Jack acquired his Siren a long time ago, and he kept her locked away all these years, but you can free her," Angel said.

The elevator hit the bottom floor and we stepped off and followed a short corridor to a room containing only a button. Axton walked up to the button.

"Everybody ready?" he asked. Everyone nodded in agreement and Axton hit the button.

"Executing phase shift," Angel said, as the room around us began to dissolve into a grey, digitized nothingness. A small, cone shaped object made of rock appeared and floated in the air.

"The Vault Key is here," Angel began, "But, to truly stop Jack from awakening the Warrior, you will have to destroy his catalyst, you will have to destroy... me."

As she said this, a young girl appeared. She looked to be around my age, with black hair and purple tattoos. Huge wings extended out from both sides of her. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. All this time she had led us to believe that she was an A.I, when she was a really a Siren. I glanced over at Maya, who was in a state of shock, she said or did nothing but stare at Angel blankly. After a few seconds of silence, we heard Handsome Jack.

"Get the hell away from my daughter!" He yelled, and Angel was suddenly pulled backwards by an invisible force. The grey faded and we found ourselves standing in a giant, circular room. In the middle, Angel floated in the air, surrounded by a force field, and being held up by electro-locks. Three huge pipes containing liquid Eridium led into the machine that was keeping her in place.

"Quick! Shoot the Eridium injectors!" Angel ordered and we opened fire on the pipes. Suddenly, Jack's face appeared on various screens around the room.

"Oh no you don't!" He yelled, "Shields up!"

Orange shields appeared and encased the Eridium injectors. Metal pillars began to rise out of the ground and digi-struct loaders. We all went in different directions. I digi-structed Deathtrap and ran towards the nearest loader I could find, pumping SMG bullets into it as I went. Jack and Angel were both screaming at us in the background, I paid little attention to either of them. I dissolved the first loader with my corrosive SMG, while Deathtrap fired a beam of electricity into the next. I began taking out every loader I could see and was getting into the action when I heard Roland over my ECHO device.

"Hey, up here!" He called. I looked up and saw him standing on a light bridge leading to a computer console. "I'll try lower the shields!"

I turned my attention back to the fighting. I hopped on to Deathtrap's shoulders and we focused our fire on taking out a Badass Loader that had just been digi-structed.

Suddenly, I saw a flash of purple from the other side of the room, and I heard Lilith's voice.

"Sup," She said.

"Lilith!" Roland yelled, "I told you not to come!"

"Yeah, and I didn't listen!" she replied and began rapidly teleporting to different spots around the room. Roland continued to work on lowering the shields.

All this time, Handsome Jack was begging us not to kill his daughter, but Angel was tired of her torture, she wanted to die, she wanted to end a life of imprisonment. It seemed like she hated Jack as much as anyone else in this room, even if he was her father.

"I got it!" Roland shouted triumphantly, "Shields are down, shoot the injectors!"

We all fired on the three Eridium injectors until each one burst. Angel screamed in pain as each one was destroyed. When they were all gone, the force field around her and the electro-locks disappeared and she fell to the ground. We rushed over to her. Without the Eridium injectors, it was only a matter of time before she died. Maya and Lilith crouched down next to Angel as she breathed her last few words. I stood back, behind everyone, and watched the scene unfold.

"Dad, I have to tell you something..." Angel said quietly.

There was a long silence before she spoke her final words.

"You're an asshole."

Her eyes shut and her body went very still.

"No, Angel!" Jack cried.

There was another long silence before Maya spoke, "What kind of person does this to their own daughter?" she asked.

"The kind of man that deserves to die," Roland said to her. "Anyway, we have to keep moving, the rest of you head to Sanctuary, I'm going after Jack."

Everything happened so fast after that. Just as Roland said that, there was a gunshot, and a bullet hold appeared in the middle of his chest. He toppled forward to reveal Handsome Jack standing behind him, a Hyperion pistol in his hand.

"Roland!" Lilith screamed and then turned towards Jack. "I'll kill you!" she screamed and ran towards Jack. Her Siren wings appeared and she glowed a bright orange. Just as she was within lunging distance of Jack, he reached out and a metal collar wrapped itself around Lilith's neck. He quickly grabbed her and spun her around to face us, using her as a meat shield.

"Lilith, kill them all," Jack said through gritted teeth.

She raised her arm and let out a scream as her tattoos began to glow. Suddenly, there was a flash and my vision went purple.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Leave a review if you can please! :)**


	10. One Last Mission

**A/N: So, we're nearly at the end. This chapter is just leading up to the big final chapter. Also, there is a lot of indication in this chapter as to how I want to finish this story. **

**The final chapter is about half done, so it might be up some time during the week, i'll have to see.**

**Also, if you read this, please leave a review. This section has been sort of dead recently, and leaving a review lets me know that people are still reading this story.**

**Anyway, as always, please enjoy!**

* * *

We all gathered in the Crimson Raider's HQ. Everyone, especially Maya, was still shaken up over the events that had just happened. Axton and Salvador had been sent out to the Arid Nexus Badlands to get information on where the Warrior and the Vault were buried. This left me with Maya, Brick, Zero and Mordecai. Everyone sat in silence for about an hour, waiting for Axton and Salvador.

While I waited, I thought, for the first time, about what things were like back at home. I thought about how my parents were doing without me. I wondered if things had cooled down with Marcie's dad. The more I thought about, the more I realised that I missed home. Home had been the last thing on my mind recently, but now that I got some time to think, I wanted to go back more than anything. I wanted to return to what things were like before all of this. There was two problems with leaving after all of this though, one, I didn't have a way off this planet, and two, the Vault Hunters would want me to stay with them here to help rebuild Pandora or whatever. I remembered Axton once saying that killing Jack was only the first step, that there was more to do, but I'd had enough.

Finally, the front door opened and Axton and Salvador walked in.

"Hero's pass," Axton said, "That's where Jack was sending all of his Eridium, that's gotta be where the Vault is."

"You'll have to go through the Eridium Blight to get there," Mordecai told us.

"I have an idea," Brick said loudly, he was incapable of talking quietly, "I'll see you guys out in Hero's Pass, I have to go get something."

"Alright then," Axton addressed us, "Everyone, except Mordecai, we're heading out to Hero's Pass shortly, gather all the weapons and ammo you need. Oh, and, talk to a few of the townspeople, they might have some things for you, it may not be much, but every bit counts."

Since everyone was off doing their own thing, I headed down to see Scooter. I hadn't talked to him in a while. As I rounded the corner to his garage, I heard a clang of metal coming from inside. I walked through the entrance and found the man himself, with his back to me, searching for something in a red toolbox and throwing everything that wasn't it behind him.

"Hey Scooter," I said.

He spun around and his face lit up when he saw me.

"Hey Gaige," he said, "You ain't seen my wrench around here have you? I've been lookin' everywhere for the damn thing."

"Here, just use mine," I smiled and grabbed that I kept strapped to my leg and tossed it to him. He caught it and returned the smile.

"Thanks, Gaige."

"No problem," I replied, "Anyway, were heading off soon to, y'know, kill Jack and stuff."

"So this is it then, huh?" he asked, "The big moment."

"Yeah, I guess," I said, looking around the room. It was then that I noticed the small black sphere, resting on a tabletop. I don't know why it caught my eye but it did. I walked over to it and picked it up with my human hand.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Oh, that thing?" Scooter replied, "I got it when I killed some bandit who was tryin' to hack my Catch-A-Ride system, It looked like he was using that thing to hack it but I don't know what it does."

I turned the sphere over into my robot arm, and as soon as it touched it, the sphere began to glow a bright blue colour. I realised what it was. I'd heard of these things a few times during my time on Pandora, but I wasn't really sure if they existed, let alone if I could get a hold of one.

"Uhh, that's pretty cool," Scooter's eyes widened.

"Can I keep this Scooter?"

"Sure thing, I don't need it."

There was a short silence.

"Anyway, Scooter, we're heading off pretty soon, I just wanted to see everyone before I left in case..." I trailed off.

"Well okay then," He said, "Good luck, give Jack a bullet from me, will ya?"

"Sure thing Scooter," I said as I turned to leave. After a few steps, Scooter called after me.

"Gaige," He called. I turned back around to face him.

"Yeah?"

"I-" It looked like he wanted to say something, but changed his mind. "You-you come back alive, you hear?"

I was shocked by his words.

"Y-yeah," I stammered, "Will do, Scooter."

* * *

"STAIRS?" Claptrap shouted in disbelief, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

"Claptrap, shut up!" I yelled at him, I was not in the mood for the annoying little robot at that moment, there was too much to focus on.

Claptrap stopped shouting and the Vault Hunters looked at me curiously.

"What?" I said flatly.

"Go on without me," Claptrap said dramatically, "Do your master proud!"

"You know, we could just carry you if-" Maya started, but was interrupted by Claptrap.

"I said, go on without me!" he repeated.

Maya sighed and we headed up the wide flight of steps into the heart of Hero's Pass.

* * *

Brick's stolen ship pulled up a few metres from the edge of the cliff next to us.

"They're swarming me Brick!" Mordecai called from inside as several Hyperion JET loaders landed on the side of the ship and made their way inside.

"Go on without me!"

"Like hell," Brick shouted, "I got you Mordecai!"

Brick made an impressive leap across the gap to land on the ship and ran inside to help Mordecai. Just as he entered, we heard a familiar boom sound. I looked up to see a moonblast shot leave the Hyperion ship and crash into Brick's ship. We heard Brick let out a scream as the ship fell out of the air and down into the lava below. We all stared in disbelief.

"Oh my God..." Maya gasped.

Axton shook his head, "Come on, we have to keep moving," he ordered.

* * *

After battling our way to the end of Hero's Pass, we entered a long, winding cave. At the end of the cave, there was an elevator that led down to the entrance to the Vault of The Warrior. Just before we entered the elevator, Axton stopped us.

"Okay, everyone," he began, "That handsome bastard is down there right now, about to wake the greatest alien power Pandora has ever known. Now, since the moment that train crashed up until now, we've survived everything this planet has to throw at us, and I don't intend to fail now. Just remember, no matter what happens down there, we're here to kill Jack, and by God, that's what we're going to do."


	11. Endgame

**A/N: You guys aren't going to like this. For this chapter, review or don't review, I don't really care. You won't like this ending and neither do I, but it has to happen this way, trust me.**

**Also, forget about most of the game mechanics for this chapter, just for story purposes.**

* * *

We dropped from the 3 meter high platform and found ourselves on an island surrounded by lava. Scattered around, and jutting out of the lava, were giant statues of weird beings. In the distance, I could see a figure, with extended angel wings, floating inside a purple circle.

"Come on, that's Lilith, let's go," Maya said urgently.

We jogged towards Lilith until we reached a large, circular platform. There was a hole in the middle of the circle, directly beneath Lilith. I guessed this was where the Vault Key would go. The Vault Key was divided into three pieces that circled Lilith as she was forced to charge them with her power.

Suddenly, Jack appeared next to a set of Hyperion monitors a few metres away from us, smiling through his ridiculous mask.

"Decided to join me, did you?" He asked sarcastically.

We were sick of his games. At the same time, we all raised our weapons and fired upon Jack. To our surprise, he vanished just before any of the bullets hit him. We exchanged a look of confusion.

"Where the fuck did he go?!" Axton yelled angrily.

"Right here," said a chorus of voices coming from behind us.

We spun around to see 3 Jacks standing there, armed with pistols. We opened fire on the clones, and they all vanished, just like the first one. Another 5 Jacks appeared, and approached us from all angles. These Jacks took slightly longer to kill, they were developing shields.

"Which one is the real one?!" I heard Maya shout.

"I don't know!" Axton replied, he was swarmed by around 4 Jacks "Gaige!"

I spun around to see another Jack running towards me at speed. I aimed my revolver, but he was faster, he surprised me by launching an explosive punch straight to my face. That was the real Jack. I felt blood erupt from my nose as I fell backwards from the force of the punch. Just as I hit the ground, I felt rough hands clamp around my throat, choking the air out of me. I looked around quickly, Deathtrap was busy destroying the fake Jacks, as were the other Vault Hunters, I was on my own for this one. Jack continued to choke me and I felt myself becoming weaker. I desperately tried to kick him off me. I looked up at his face, he was grinning maniacally. I summoned all my strength to my robotic left arm, and pushed away. Slowly, I felt his grip loosen. He looked at me curiously as I pushed his hand away. Once I had enough space, I reached for his holstered pistol that he kept around his waist. I grabbed it with my right hand and pulled it away from him, while using all my strength to throw him off me with my mechanical arm.

Before he could recover, I stood up and uploaded the whole clip of the Hyperion pistol into him. I had never seen a pistol like this before, it tore through his shield and blew chunks out of his flesh, soaking him in blood. I wondered why he didn't just shoot me in the first place, maybe he wanted a satisfying kill, he was weird like that. I fired until the pistol made a clicking sound, indicating that it was out of ammo. I tossed the pistol aside and looked around for my revolver, which I had dropped when Jack tackled me. I found my revolver and spun around to face Jack again, except he was gone.

I looked back towards the centre of the platform, just in time to see him thrust the completed Vault Key into the whole. The Vault Key emitted a purple pulse, he collapsed backwards and Lilith fell to the ground beside him. A purple shield appeared and surrounded them both.

Axton jogged over to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"You alright?" he asked, "You really messed him up."

"Yeah I'm fine," I replied, wiping the blood from my nose.

We heard a loud rumble and the ground shook slightly. We looked around to find the source. I was distantly aware of Jack laughing to himself.

Suddenly, a huge, dog shaped monster made of rock and lava jumped up from the cliff and landed on top of the Vault. I had never seen anything like it before. The beast let out a loud roar.

"Warrior!" Jack shouted triumphantly, "Kill."

The Warrior jumped down from the Vault statue and instantly began covering the whole area with fire. I dived behind a stone pillar as the platform was filled with fire. Salvador jumped into cover beside me, two huge assault rifles in each hand.

"Any idea of how to kill this thing?!" I shouted.

He ran out of cover and fired in the general direction of the Warrior.

"With a fuck load of bullets!" He yelled.

I ran out after him, firing at the Warrior. It didn't look like any of us were doing any damage to it at all. The Warrior smashed one of legs into the ground, creating a massive shockwave. I stumbled, but continued running and firing. Then, the Warrior turned around and dived underneath the lava. We had a chance to assemble and reload our weapons.

"Anyone see any weak points?" Maya asked quickly.

"This orange stuff started pouring out when a few of my turret's bullets hit it in the chest," Axton said.

"Guess it's the only idea we've got, let's go for it," Maya said.

The Warrior rose out of the lava and resumed spraying fire everywhere. We spread out and fired on its chest. Sure enough, bits of its chest were falling off as we shot them. It did something, but not a lot. The Warrior began to try and step on us. I, once again, ran for cover behind a rock. I found Axton already behind the rock, crouched down, reloading his assault rifle.

"Axton, this isn't working!" I exclaimed, "It will be ages before we do any kind of damage!"

"You got a better idea then?!" he replied.

I did.

I quickly stood out from behind the rock, took a look at the Hyperion computers that were set up a few metres away, and then crouched back into cover.

"It looks like Jack was using those computers to control the moonbase remotely!" I yelled.

"Gaige now is not the time for-"

"I might be able to control the moonshot cannon!"

Axton's face lit up.

"Go for it!" Axton commanded, "Wait for the Warrior to go under again, then run!"

We left the cover and saw Salvador standing there, a rocket launcher in each hand. He fired them at the Warrior. Both rockets connected with the Warrior's chest and exploded, blowing massive chunks of rock away. The Warrior screeched in pain and jumped back under the lava.

"Gaige, now!" Axton shouted.

I ran for the computers, while Axton informed the others of what was happening.

"Listen up!" he addressed them, "Gaige is going to try and hack the moonshot cannon so we can blow this fucker away. Cover her in whatever way you can."

The Warrior resurfaced, even more determined to kill us this time. I was distantly aware of the gunfire that filled the air. I was focused on hacking the computer. It was a tough hack, I had hacked Hyperion technology before, but nothing like this, it had every defence mechanism I knew of. I battled through firewall after firewall, until I was rewarded with two sweet words: access granted.

"Warrior, what are you doing?!" Jack screamed in disbelief, "Kill that cyborg freak!"

I ignored him and took control of the moonshot cannon. The screen showed live video of the area, with a strange looking crosshair in the middle. I tried to aim the crosshair at the Warrior, but the cannon moved to slow and the Warrior wouldn't keep still.

"Maya!" I shouted over my shoulder to the Siren, "Can you phaselock the Warrior?"

"I-I could try!" she replied.

I looked back at the screen and waited for the phaselock. I saw a bright purple light emit from behind me. I watched the screen as the Warrior became enveloped in a huge purple sphere. This was my chance. I placed the crosshair on the Warrior and hit a big red button on the console. I heard a thump in the distance as the cannon fired, and I saw the rocket speed towards us. The rocket crashed directly into the Warrior's head, blowing up and taking the head with it. The Warrior remained standing for a second, before collapsing on top of the lava.

* * *

The shield around Jack and Lilith disappeared. Mordecai rushed over to Lilith, helped her up and pulled her away from the dying Jack. Jack was caked in blood and was clutching his bleeding stomach.

"No no no... I- I can't die like this, not when I'm so close." He began to panic

"Anyone want the finishing blow on this scumbag?" asked Axton. "Because I'll gladly take it."

We had a quick discussion about who would get the kill. In the end, it was decided that Lilith should get the satisfaction. She walked towards Jack, who began to back away. Lilith had a huge grin on her face. She stopped a few feet from where Jack was standing. Then, Jack started to laugh.

"I just love how y'all thought it was gonna be this easy to kill me, I mean, ME." He smiled and tapped on the blue hexagon he wore around his neck. A huge electric pulse emitted from it, knocking us all back a few steps. The pulse spread to as far as I could see. I felt the gun in my hand and on my back digi-struct out of existence. When I had recovered, I looked at everyone else, they were staring at their empty hands, worried looks on their faces. Then I saw Jack, he was holding a Hyperion pistol in each hand, aiming at our group. Lilith was still a few steps ahead of us, close to Jack.

"Pretty cool, right?" he laughed. "It's a little something that the Hyperion engineers have been cooking up. It's some sort of EMP-blast thingy, I don't know. I does two things: permanently shuts down those stupid New-U stations, and temporarily disables shields and digi-structing guns for you guys, and no turret for poor old Axton over there. Although I have no idea why that floating hunk of junk over there is still here. Doesn't look like he's doing much is he?"

He was referring to Deathtrap. Jack thought that the EMP blast had disabled Deathtrap.

Axton stared wrathfully at Jack for a few seconds, before saying through gritted teeth, "Lilith, kill this fucking bitch."

Lilith raised her arm, ready to fry his brains. She thrust her hand towards him, but nothing happened. She tried again, with the same result. Jack let out a huge laugh.

"Yeah, nice try, Siren, but your powers ain't got nothing on me." He pulled back his overcoat to reveal a shining, blue shield attatched to his waist. "Took months of experimenting, but here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the first Siren-proof shield by Hyperion! Also, as an added bonus, it can heal all flesh wounds, look."

I noticed, much to my horror, that Jacks stomach was no longer bleeding.

Jack hovered the pistols over each of us individually.

"Now, who to kill first." He said happily.

* * *

**(3rd person)**

Axton whistled quickly to get everybody's attention. They all looked over at him. He was twirling his tomahawk around in his fingers. They caught on to his plan. Mordecai pulled out his machete, Zero grasped the handle of his sword, Brick and Salvador cracked their knuckles, and Gaige pulled out her work hammer.

Everyone began to walk slowly towards Jack.

"Looks like you can't get rid of every weapon, Jack," Axton said menacingly, "Give it up, you're outnumbered, it's over."

"That what you think?" Asked Jack with a smile.

"Pretty much," Axton replied.

"God dammit stop fucking walking!" Jack screamed, getting angry. "I will shoot every last one of you!"

The Vault Hunters continued to advance. For every slow step the Vault Hunters took forward, Jack took one backwards.

"You think I'm fucking joking?!" Jack threatened. "Fine then!"

Suddenly, he aimed both of his pistols at Gaige and pulled the triggers. Both bullets embedded themselves in Gaige's chest. She fell to the ground.

"Gaige!" Maya and Axton cried simultaneously.

Deathtrap recognized, too late, that Jack was a threat to Gaige, and sprung into action, speeding right towards Jack and swiping him with his claws. Deathtrap was on him before he even realised what was happening. Jack's head rolled off his neck and his body slumped to the ground.

The Vault Hunters sprinted over to Gaige, who lay on her back on the ground, blood gushing out of two gaping bullet holes in her chest. She wasn't dead yet, but she would be soon. Deathtrap hovered over to the crowd.

"I...didn't...see...that...one...coming." she tried to laugh but ending up coughing up blood.

Axton, Lilith and Maya dropped to their knees on either side of her. Zero, Salvador, Brick and Mordecai stood looking down at the dying girl.

"Quick, look for an Insta-Health!" Axton began to run off, but Mordecai stopped him. He put a hand on Axton's shoulder.

"An Insta-Health won't fix that, amigo, she's done, and with no New-U's..." Mordecai trailed off.

Axton returned to his spot next to Gaige. Lilith was holding Gaige's mechanical hand in hers. "I'm so sorry Gaige." She kept saying. Tears were streaming down her face.

"'Bout... time...we took...that... bastard... down." Gaige stammered and started to smile.

Then, her face dropped and her head turned to the side. Her metal hand slid out of Lilith's and the metallic arm dropped to the ground.

Lilith stood up, walked over to Mordecai and hugged him. Maya remained sitting on the ground next to Gaige's body. Axton, however, shot up, anger in his eyes and breathing rapidly. He ran over to Jack's decapitated body and began kicking it with all his might.

"You worthless piece of shit!" he yelled.

Brick walked over and gently pushed Axton aside, only so he could launch an immense punch into Jack's chest. Jack's torso exploded into blood. Salvador and Brick then picked up Jack's body and threw it into the nearby lava, before returning to the group. They stood in silence for a minute, honouring the girl that had fought with them the whole way.

* * *

The Vault Hunters gathered around Gaige's grave, which they set up next to Roland's. Sanctuary citizens, guards and the Crimson Raiders all showed up to the short funeral. Axton had carried her body back all the way from Hero's Pass back to Three Horns Valley without saying a word. He, for some reason, seemed to be the one most affected by her death. Each Crimson Raider walked up and said a few words about Gaige, before they lowered the coffin into the hole in the ground and buried it.

Meanwhile, Gaige leaned against a nearby rock with her hood up, keeping out of sight.

"Quite a turn out." She whispered to herself.

She hated what she was doing, she hated what it had done to the other Vault Hunters, but it had to be done. She'd hacked a New-U station in Three Horns Valley before they left for their last mission. The mysterious black sphere which she had gotten from Scooter was a hacking device, and once she had implemented it into the New-U station, it worked as a generator, keeping this New-U station running when the rest stopped working. Much like Zero's Deception ability, she managed to reconstruct a new body, while keeping the old one in existence. She could only use it once though, as when she opened up the New-U station to retrieve it, she saw that all of the circuitry had been fried, along with the black sphere. She had used it to fake her own death, but with good reason. Even with its head severed, the Hyperion corporation still continued on, and the bounty would have still been on her head. But, the bounty died when she did, or at least when she pretended to. She had intended to fake her own death, but she didn't count on Jack killing her after shutting down most of the technology on Pandora.

She planned to make her way back home to Eden-5, she didn't know how she was going to do it, but she figured she would find a way. It was essential for her to stay off the radar, and being with the Vault Hunters who had killed Hyperion's CEO was not the way to do it. She figured the Vault Hunters would get over her death in time. She resented herself for what she had done, she wished she could let them know she was still here, but even them knowing that she was still alive was too dangerous. She remembered how Lilith had tried to fake her death, but Hyperion found out she was still alive when she began to contact the Vault Hunters.

She turned around and headed away from the people. She didn't know where she was going or what she was doing. She just headed into the distance, towards whatever the future held for her.

**The End**

* * *

***EDIT*: If you have finished this and are looking for a sequel, read my second story 'Hunted' :)**


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